US-German trio wins medicine Nobel for illuminating the brain

STOCKHOLM: The Nobel medicine prize was awarded on Monday to US psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their pioneering work in the neuroscience field of optogenetics. Optogenetics involves controlling nerve signals with light, and helps researchers understand how specific cell types contribute to behaviours like learning, fear, addiction and movement.
The trio were honoured 'for their discovery of a molecular switch for nerve cells', the Nobel Assembly said. 'It's an incredible honour and unexpected, but I'm deeply honoured,' Deisseroth told the Nobel Foundation in an interview, adding that he had been working late on the US west coast and had just laid down to sleep when the call came from Stockholm. 'Now I don't think I'll be able to sleep for quite a while.'
Using light, researchers are now able to switch individual neural circuits on or off in a brain. They have been able to reveal neural circuits governing specific memories, feelings, and behaviours relevant for neurological and psychiatric disorders. In clinical medicine, the method has been used on humans on a very limited basis, particularly to treat a specific form of blindness, and may one day lead to treatments for disorders such as Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. — AFP